When Being Aware of Cybersecurity Means Knowing You're Human

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Hello to all our Pumpkin Spice Cyber Friends! It’s Cybersecurity Awareness Month — and what better way to kick it off than with a deep dive into the human side of cyber threats? In this episode host Selena Larson welcomes back guest and part-time co-host Sarah Sabotka, our “Cybersecurity Awareness Month Queen” and Staff Threat Researcher at Proofpoint. She joins us to break down why social engineering is at the heart of so many attacks.

We take a closer look at how scams and social engineering tactics are growing more sophisticated—and how the real battleground isn’t just your inbox, it’s your brain. Our guest explains “amygdala hijacking,” the psychological manipulation behind scams, and why recognizing your emotional responses during suspicious interactions can be just as important as spotting technical red flags. 

We also focus on protecting some of the most vulnerable—seniors and young digital natives—highlighting community education programs, interactive teen cybersecurity trainings, and strategies for safe social media use, password hygiene, and multi-factor authentication.

We also talk about:

• Why Awareness Month feels different this year and how communicators are packaging complex threat research for real people.
  
  
• The neuroscience behind social engineering (shoutout to Dr. Bob, Proofpoint’s lead cognitive scientist) and a simple, powerful takeaway: trust your gut.
  
  
• Concrete examples: ClickFix scams, deepfakes used against small businesses, LLM-enabled phishing, benign-conversation lures (smishing & job scams), and multi-step attacks that prime victims over time.
  
  
• Practical steps to protect yourself and your org — safe words, pause-and-check habits, and why peer stories beat scary slides.
  
  

Tune in and learn how to build better cyber awareness for everyone in your life—because cybersecurity isn’t just for IT teams, it’s for all of us.

Resources Mentioned:

https://www.proofpoint.com/us/resources/threat-reports/human-factor-social-engineering

https://www.proofpoint.com/us/blog/security-awareness-training

https://www.proofpoint.com/us/blog/threat-insight/best-laid-plans-ta453-targets-religious-figure-fake-podcast-invite-delivering

https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2025/02/19/central-florida-wildlife-rescue-falls-victim-to-podcast-scam-warns-others/

https://abc7.com/post/scam-texts-targeting-people-looking-jobs-are-rise-ftc-warns/17838427/

https://www.cbc.ca/news/marketplace/sextortion-teen-boys-canada-1.7648267

https://www.consumerreports.org/media-room/press-releases/2025/10/consumer-reports-study-finds-surge-in-texting-and-messaging-scams

For more information about Proofpoint, check out our website.

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